Brevity

Get what you want to say into three sentences or less.

It is then either published in full or ignored – either of which is preferable to a poor selection from a long statement. If you supply thirty sentences, you cannot control which twenty-seven sentences will never see the light of day.

Shared Values

Get onto the same ground as those people who are listening to you.

Apologies which are half-hearted or late are already damned. Most people understand that we all sometimes get things wrong. What they will not accept is the evasion, the cover-up, the attempt to deceive – whether by outright denial or by ‘weasel words’. Mistakes show things you can fix; untruthful behavior shows that you cannot be trusted.

We are judged when things go wrong; we are judged even more closely on how we respond when things go wrong.

Authority

What matters is not what is said… but what is believed.

We believe our own first hand experience. Failing that, we believe someone we trust.